Let's hear your season's reflections - The Good, the Bad and the Ugly....

I'll start this off, The Good - LOTS of good deer activity on my Young Co. place during archery season and really good quality deer sightings on Throckmorton lease through Thanksgiving, including considerable evidence of rutting bucks. The Bad - Very little daytime deer activity on my Young Co. place for Nov./Dec., significant drop-off of mature deer and overall deer numbers on Throckmorton lease from late. Nov. -late. Dec. I feel the abundance of natural food groceries due to rather overall mild temps played a big factor in this. The Ugly - I plowed into my first animal ever the last weekend of season, a 200lb boar hog which did some minor damage to truck front end. Overall, just another unpredictable hunting season. What about U??????

I had great deer activity at my three stands and lots of day activity all season from archery to the end of late doe. I hunted a lot and never saw a peak rut period. I paid a lot of attention to scent and noise in my hunting area and avoided any presence near them other than serious hunting. I even created trails to approach my stands without crossing anywhere near my feeders. And more to the point of overkill, which I believe helped as not everyone on the lease shared that experience. They mostly saw the same as most seasons with deer mid season either going nocturnal or vanish from the feeders. I passed quite a few legal bucks at mine and now know some of the nicer one did survive the season. Too bad about plowing the hog. I had a few close calls and believe my bumper made contact with one doe, but I was close enough to a complete stop that it did not damage the bumper. I started running the ditch lights on the last stretch of road to our hunting lease and slowing it down after that one.

Thanks Sniper, some good things for me to consider next season, regarding limiting activities around feeders and feed pens...

What else is out there, know there's a lot of us hunting Young and/or Throckmorton counties..

This year was a tuff year as I lost my brother and best friend and hunting buddy. My wife was a trooper and hunted most of the season . Bless her heart . I know there was some cold days . She is a trooper. No big shooters this year but lots of potential for next year . Limited out on doe as we needed to knock some down . Took a few pigs out . Probably need to go do some night hunting and get rid of some more . Still a good year to reflect on . Something good can always be found around bad . At my age now just to be out and enjoy Gods creation makes it worthwhile.

We had a good season on our place. Son took a nice 1st bow buck. Scored 142. We let everything else walk. Just like watching the animals more than killing them. Lots of good young bucks coming up & if we keep getting this moisture, gonna be some real studs around next season.

Decent year DQ, We are about 5 miles west of Newcastle and had a really high population of deer, lots of great bucks that are 3.5-4.5. I saw a few really old bucks that were on the downhill slide, I didn't see a single top end 5/6 yr old buck all season on our place. Movement was good all season and the deer really hit the corn and cotton feeders and still are. We had really good fall growth after a couple of little rains in early Dec that pulled the deer off the wheat for a bit, these rains and the coming sunshine are a good start for next years antler growth which starts now with healthy bucks. I think our largest buck for the season was 147" and was a very mature buck that covered a lot of ground and was passed by 3 hunters before he stopped at the wrong stand. I had a great year personally and killed a 160" main frame 8 with some trash and a "management" buck that was near 150", both on another place I hunt.

Wow 160" mainframe 8 and 150" cull, awesome

Had the best year we’ve ever had in our 6 years of owning our place west of Elbert. Took 4 really nice bucks this year. Had several more that made it though the season that should be studs next year.

Going out Fri. for first time in 2 months to fill feeders, what are we seeing out there? Turkeys strutting yet??

We had a nice year at our ranch. We're six miles west of Olney. We usually see a few 120's and a 130 here and there when the rut is in. We're still recovering from my former neighbor putting up a high fence along the south end of my ranch and my neighbors ranches seven years ago. It's really effected the number of deer we see and there movement. This year we saw twice as many smaller fours, sixes and eight points than from the previous years. Each year we're seeing more and more bucks and does which is a good thing. Hopefully in a year or two those smaller bucks will be bigger ones.

What's really strange is, where have our hogs gone? We usually have between six and twenty something hogs at anyone time. Since last spring I have one lone boar and every couple weeks a small pack of four to six or so. It's never been like this. I've had all my feeders going as I do every year. None of my neighbors have trapped them or decimated a large pack of them. They've just gone somewhere else. For us we like having hogs as our kids and friends enjoy hunting them. Very strange, hoping things change soon!

I am at my young county lease right now. Using the cool weather to do some lease maintenance. Filled feeders today and traps out for coons tonight. I hve not seen any turkeys, but I was not looking very hard. A massive flock of hens roosted around my back 40 stand all through January so I am sure they are around.